Northern Irish court sides with UK premier over Brexit challenge

Northern Ireland's High Court on Friday rejected an attempt to block Britain's exit from the European Union, saying that neither the province's parliament nor its laws could override a decision by the British government.

according to rapporteur report from Reuters, link ,But it said it would defer to English courts on the wider issue of whether the British government has the right to invoke Article 50 of the EU Lisbon Treaty to leave the bloc without the explicit backing of the British parliament.

Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the ruling, with a spokesman saying it would allow the British government "to proceed to trigger Article 50 as planned".

"The fact that the government has won in the Northern Ireland case could be seen to indicate that its prerogative power is holding up pretty well," said Stephen Tierney, director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law.

"I would personally be surprised if the High Court in England reached a different conclusion," he said.

Scotland's pro-independence government said it did not believe the court ruling gave any clear pointers to its own situation.

"We are considering the judgment, but it must be noted that this case examined the specifics of the situation in Northern Ireland and therefore has no automatic implications for Scotland," a spokesman for the Scottish government said.

STERLING DIPS

Sterling fell to an eight-day low against the euro after the ruling.

Overall, 52 percent of the United Kingdom voted in favor of leaving the EU in June's referendum, but 56 percent of those voting in Northern Ireland backed remaining in the bloc.

There are fears that Brexit could undermine a 1998 peace deal, the Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of bloodshed in the province, and could lead to the reintroduction of unpopular controls on the border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member.

But justice Paul Maguire said it was "not viable" that Northern Ireland should overrule the 52 percent of the United Kingdom as a whole that voted in favor of leaving.

The regional parliament would have a say on legislation passed to enact Britain's exit, but the triggering of Article 50 itself was not a "devolved matter".

"The UK Parliament has retained to itself the ability to legislate for NI without the need to resort to any special procedure," Maguire said.

The arguments about May's rights to trigger Article 50 "have been held over pending the outcome of the English litigation", he added.